Jones, Woody, Nott among competitors at this weekend's US Open National Playoffs qualifier in Midland|

Dan Chalk chalk@mdn.net

Updated 6:30 am, Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Editor’s note: Local players Ryan Kelly, Ryan Varilek, David Foster and Pharrington Douglas are also planning to compete in the qualifier. Their names were received by the Daily News after today’s story went to press in our print edition.

More than 70 tennis players will compete at the Tennis Center for berths in five open divisions at the US Open National Playoffs in late August during the Connecticut Open. There, competitors vie to get into the US Open itself, starting Aug. 31 in New York.

Woody said that young Midland standouts Austin Woody, his son, and Alyvia Jones are among those competing in the event, which is being held in Midland for the first time and runs from Saturday to either Monday or Tuesday.

Admission is free to the public. Midland is one of 14 sectional qualifying tournament sites around the country, and champions will be crowned in women’s singles, men’s singles, women’s doubles, men’s doubles, and mixed doubles

“This is very high-caliber tennis,” Mike Woody said. “This weekend represents an opportunity to see a tennis smorgasbord.”

Jones, who’s finishing her freshman year at Bullock Creek High School, has won at least 13 USTA national singles and doubles titles. Austin Woody just finished his sophomore year with the Northwood University men’s tennis team and was a multiple state champion at Dow High.

Other notable players competing are No. 1 women’s seed Sara Daavettila of Wiliamston, who, like Jones, played in the Dow Corning Tennis Classic in February; and West Nott, 32, another former Dow High star and now an assistant coach at the University of Southern California.

Mike Woody added that a number of Tennis Center members are also competing in the tournament.

“There’s a pretty good Michigan flavor,” he said.

Play begins at 9 a.m. Saturday and runs all day Saturday and Sunday, with the finals of the five divisions to begin on Monday morning.

Woody said more than 100 entries have been submitted for the event, with many players competing in more than one division.

This is the sixth year of the US Open National Playoffs and the first year that the Greater Midland Tennis Center has hosted a sectional qualifying tournament.

“The whole idea (of the National Playoffs) was to (draw from) a broad base of players and to give everybody a chance (to compete for a spot in the US Open),” Woody explained. “Nobody can say they didn’t have a chance to qualify for the US Open.”